The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 21, 2016

As the progeny of a family whose New York City domiciles tended to be downtown (as in downtown, i.e., Lower Manhattan), even the mention of the Upper West Side typically conjured images of incredibly wealthy folks leaving their luxe apartments to walk their frou-frou little dogs, probably on their way to MOMA or somesuch locale. A lot of newsprint and bandwidth has been spent documenting the scrubbing of Times Square, a place that used to be frankly a little scary at times, despite its renown and typically massive crowds. However, long before the intersection of Broadway and Seventh was made “safe” for the average, ordinary, everyday tourist, a little refuge in the tony Upper West Side probably could have used a similar strategy. Back in the sixties and early seventies, a tiny city park known as Sherman Square was a hangout for heroin addicts (and “salespeople”), ultimately earning the sobriquet Needle Park. James Mills documented the typically haggard people who made Needle Park their home away from home (if they even had a real home to begin with) in two Life Magazine articles in 1965, later fleshing out his work in a novel entitled The Panic in Needle Park, which became the source material for this visceral and often pretty hard to watch film by Jerry Schatzberg (Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Street Smart). Audiences in 1971 had probably never seen the horrors of heroin addiction as “up close and personally” as Schatzberg depicted them in The Panic in Needle Park, and they similarly had probably never seen performances as raw and unvarnished as those of stars Al Pacino and Kitty Winn. The film was probably too gritty to warrant “recognition” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but it’s notable that Kitty Winn won Best Actress at Cannes and Schatzberg was nominated for the Palme d’Or. There are certain moments in The Panic in Needle Park where a lot of people, even those who don’t necessarily think of themselves as being squeamish, may want to turn away from the screen (or at least cover their eyes), but there’s little doubt that the film provides one of the most devastating portrayals of drug addiction ever caught on celluloid.

As almost horrifying as some of the overt depictions of drug use are in this film, there’s an almost curiously circumspect quality to the introduction of Helen Reeves (Kitty Winn) and what she’s just been through. A haggard Helen is on the subway, and then makes her way back to an apartment where her maybe boyfriend Marco (Raul Julia) more or less upbraids her for complaining about the unhygienic conditions where she’s just been. Though it’s not overtly stated, it becomes clear that Helen has just had a “back alley” abortion somewhere, and the results are not entirely copacetic. Marco’s friend (and dealer) Bobby (Al Pacino) at least seems marginally more concerned with Helen’s state than Marco is, and later, when she has to check herself into a hospital due to continued bleeding, it’s Bobby who comes to visit her.

That sparks a nascent romance between the two, keeping Helen from returning to her family in Indiana (Marco has hightailed it out of there by this time) and moving in with Bobby, who quickly reveals his use of drugs. Helen begins as a “mere” observer, and one of the film’s kind of odd conceits is her relatively sanguine reaction to it all, including a “group” get together where a bunch of heroin addicts shoot up (this is one of the sequences where the more easily unsettled may wish to avert their eyes). When a “panic” (i.e., lack of drug supply) sets in, a cop named Hotch (Alan Vint) starts hanging around, waiting for the rats scurrying off the sinking ship to start turning on each other. Helen, again, is a kind of observer, though the scene has been set for her potential seduction to become an informer.

As grittily realistic as the general ambience of this film undeniably is, there’s a certain inauthenticity to Helen’s downward spiral in the film. Nothing is ever really fully motivated, seeming to spring out of Helen’s starry eyed near hero worship for Bobby rather than any deficit in her own character. That leaves a somewhat wobbly center with regard to how Helen and Bobby interact, though in a way it hardly matters, due largely to the unbelievably visceral performances of Pacino and Winn. If there’s a subtle artifice to some of the narrative, the actual portrayal of this pair’s lifestyle could hardly feel more depressive and claustrophobic. Pacino of course erupted into one of the most iconic actors of his generation. It’s a little stunning that Winn didn’t go on to a stellar film career of her own, but evidently at least part of that was due to her own preference for stage work.

The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Panic in Needle Park is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Judging entirely by the completely nonscientific method of screencapture comparison, it appears this release is subtantially similar if not downright identical to the French Blu-ray release which is just coming out and which has been reviewed by Svet Atanasov. The film was lensed by Adam Holender, who shot entirely on location in New York City, creating an extremely realistic, quasi-verité look that this transfer admirably recreates. As Svet mentions in his review, the color grading is often deliberately on the cool side, giving a kind of harsh, wintry aspect that is clearly meant to subliminally reflect the barren lives of the addicts. Detail is excellent, especially in the many extreme close-ups that Holender and Schatzberg often favor. Grain is quite heavy at times, and flirts with chunkiness on occasion (see screenshots 12 and 13). Shadow detail is quite strong, something that's especially notable given the film's penchant toward scenes in drab and dingy interior environments.

Note: My disc encountered playback issues at circa 53:45, stuttering/freezing through the next 40 or so seconds (depending on where I'd rewind and/or fast forward to). The disc did not have any observable defects, but I washed it anyway, encountering the same anomaly afterward. If any members have the same issue, Private Message me and I will include updates to the review as necessary.

The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Panic in Needle Park features a serviceable DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. Schatzberg evidently initially wanted the great American composer Ned Rorem to score the film, but later on decided a complete lack of music would add to the film's authenticity (Rorem's score is included as a supplement). The soundtrack is therefore filled with the sounds of the urban environment, even before actual imagery is seen. Both the ambient environmental sounds and dialogue are rendered cleanly and clearly, with no damage whatsoever to report.

Rorem's score, offered here as an isolated track, is really quite interesting and I highly recommend it to lovers of contemporary American music. One of my earliest childhood "musical" memories was being introduced to Mr. Rorem, who was Composer in Residence at the University of Utah for several years in the mid sixties, when I was a little boy growing up in Salt Lake City. Rorem's music can be a bit thorny, and his chamber score here kind of plies some of the same feeling as Leonard Bernstein's instrumental music for West Side Story (notably the Prologue), along with a dissonant, percussive approach that may remind some of Jerry Goldsmith's iconic score for Planet of the Apes (and all I can say is if that duo of referents doesn't pique your interest, nothing will).

The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Panic in the Streets of New York (480p; 25:31) is an interesting archival piece with some good interviews, including with Schatzberg.


• Writers in Needle Park (480p; 9:19) is another older piece with interviews with Joan Didion.


• Notes on the Unused Score by Ned Rorem (1080p; 2:17) is a series of text cards explaining the history behind the unused score by Ned Rorem (featured on this release as an isolated track).


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 3:00)


• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. I may be mistaken, but I think this is the first time Twilight Time has included an unused score as an isolated track, in this case a rather interesting set of cues by Ned Rorem.

The Panic in Needle Park Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Panic in Needle Park is not an "easy" watch, and some of the depictions of shooting up are almost impossible to sit through without squirming. While the general ambience of the film is almost unrelentingly realistic, I personally thought some of Helen's motivations weren't defined clearly enough, leaving a bit of uncertainty at the core of the film's emotional environment. That ends up being by and large irrelevant, though, simply because the performances of Pacino and Winn are so honest and visceral. Technical merits are strong, and The Panic in Needle Park comes Recommended.